After suffering the snubbing from India’s Test squad and the IPL 2022 mega-auction, Cheteshwar Pujara has joined Sussex for the upcoming English domestic summer. He is expected to play in the County Championship and Royal London One-Day competition.
Cheteshwar Pujara joined Sussex as the replacement of Travis Head
Cheteshwar Pujara joined Sussex as the replacement of Travis Head, who has been released from his contract due to workload management along with the news that he is expecting his first child. The senior India batsman is expected to arrive by April 7 when the first round of county matches begin and remain until at least the end of the one-day competition which is till September.
Chief selector Chetan Sharma and skipper Rohit Sharma have stated that the doors on Cheteshwar Pujara – along with Ajinkya Rahane who was also dropped from the Test side – are not closed for their returns, and they were not considered only for the Sri Lanka series.
Playing in the County Championship this season is a big statement from Pujara as India’s next Test after the second Sri Lanka Test match will be in England – a solitary Test match of the unfinished series from last year which India lead by 2-1.
This is not the first time Cheteshwar Pujara will feature in County cricket
He’s had stints at Derbyshire (2014), Yorkshire (2015 and 2018), Nottinghamshire (2017) before and had signed a deal with Gloucestershire in 2020 but the games were postponed due to the pandemic.
His record in the County Championship, though, is ordinary- 988 runs at an average of 29.93 from 36 innings, with three centuries and three half-centuries.
“I am excited and honoured to be a part of the historic Sussex County Cricket Club for the upcoming season. I do look forward to joining up with the Sussex family soon and be a part of its rich cricketing history. Over the years I have always enjoyed my time in the UK playing county cricket, so eagerly looking forward to the new stint and hope to contribute to the club’s success,” Pujara said.
Cheteshwar Pujara has been under heavy scrutiny for a long time due to inconsistent returns with the bat and not century for more than three years. Since the start of 2020, Pujara averages a mediocre 26 in 20 Tests in which he managed 8 fifties, while his strike rate of 33 is heavily criticised; his last Test century came on the 2018-19 tour of Australia.
The 34-year-old has also been demoted from Grade A+ to Grade B in the BCCI’s central contracts list for 2021-22. Recently, Pujara turned up in the Ranji Trophy for Saurashtra, scoring 191 runs from five innings which included two fifties.
